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OUR  DEBT 

TO 

GREAT  BRITAIN 


By 


PAUL  REVERE  FROTHINGHAM 


Price  Ten  Cents 

THE     BEACON     PRESS 
25  BEACON  STREET,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


-t  f  .  t,  ""';-  -X;  f  f  t.-"?-*  '^?  >>;;f;>^'  '"'^f ':f 


Our  Debt  to  Great  Britain 


By 

PAUL  REVERE  FROTHINGHAM 


"/  am  debtor  both  to  theGreeks, 
and  the  barbarians^  both  to  the 
wise  and  to  the  unwise  J* 


TH  E     BEACON     PRESS 
25  BEACON  STREET,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


1918 


1> 


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^^ 


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Our  Debt  to  Great  Britain 

WHEN  the  great  Apostle  confessed  himself  a 
debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  bar- 
barians, both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  unwise,  we 
may  be  sure  that  he  had  not  reached  such  a  conclu- 
sion without  a  struggle.  There  were  many  deeply 
seated  and  inherited  prejudices  that  had  to  be  over- 
come. It  is  equally  certain,  too,  that  his  acknowledg- 
ment of  international  indebtedness  was  not  ac- 
ceptable to  the  rank  and  file  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
The  ancient  Jews  were  a  very  proud  and  independent 
people.  Their  mission  in  the  world,  as  they  conceived 
it,  was  to  teach,  not  learn;  to  impart  and  not  receive! 
They  belonged  to  what  they  called  the  "Chosen  Race." 
In  their  opinion  they  had  been  selected  by  their  God 
to  enlighten  and  redeem  the  world.  They  spoke  of 
the  land  they  lived  in  as  the  Land  of  Promise,  which 
was  another  way  of  saying  that  it  was  "God's  own 
country." 

Now,  the  great  Apostle  inherited  these  opinions. 
They  had  been  taught  him  in  the  schools.  He  had 
boasted  of  them  in  his  youth.  But,  with  growing 
years,  he  had  a  widening  experience.  He  traveled. 
He  saw  something  of  other  civilizations.  He  learned 
the  beauty  that  was  Greece;  he  perceived  the  grandeur 
that  belonged  to  Rome.     In  his  missionary  journeys 

[3] 


OUR:  DEBJ  Tp/QREAT  BRITAIN 


he  came  to  have  an  appreciation  of  the  rugged  virtues 
that  ennobled  the  barbarians,  as  they  were  called,  of 
Asia  Minor.  Out  of  the  dark  pit  of  his  prejudices 
and  provincialism  he  climbed  up  into  the  sunlight  of  a 
citizenship  of  the  world!  Taught  by  hard  experience, 
enlightened  by  long  intercourse  with  other  lands,  he 
learned  how  much  his  country  and  his  people  owed  to 
sister  civilizations  that  lay  beyond  the  sea.  "I  am 
debtor,"  he  acknowledged,  "both  to  the  Greeks  and 
the  barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  unwise." 

Our  national  eduation  here  in  America,  in  the 
course  of  the  past  four  years,  has  been  perfected  along 
lines  that  are  not  dissimilar.  We  have  been  brought 
to  a  recognition  of  our  deep  indebtedness  to  others. 
We  have  learned  to  look  in  a  different  way  upon 
France  and  Italy,  upon  Belgium  and  Great  Britain. 
We  recognize  how  much  we  owe  them.  Our  present 
safety  is  due  to  their  unswerving  loyalty  to  high  ideals. 
The  stupendous  victory,  in  which  we  have  had  the 
privilege  of  taking  part,  we  owe  to  their  unconquerable 
courage,  their  dogged  perseverance,  their  rock-like, 
long  resistance,  both  at  home  and  in  the  field.  We  are 
debtors  to  them  all — and  they  to  us,  as  they  cheer- 
fully and  gratefully  acknowledge. 

But  today,*  we  are  asked  to  pay  particular  atten- 
tion to  our  indebtedness  to  the  people  of  Great 
Britain.  And  we  ought  to  do  so  with  the  greater 
gladness.  For  they  and  we  are  kin.  We  epeak  the 
same  language;  we  share  the  same  inheritance  of 
liberty  and  law!    In  a  sense,  it  is  a  reproach  to  our  in- 

*Brltaln'8  Day  In  the  United  States,  oteerved  In  more  tban  a  thousand  cities 
and  towns,  December  7, 1918. 

[4] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

telligence  and  sense  of  fairness  that  we  have  to  be 
called  upon  to  emphasize  our  debt.  It  ought  to  be 
evident  to  all.  And,  what  is  more,  it  ought  to  be 
reverently  recognized  and  thankfully  expressed  by  all. 
With  the  obvious  reasons  why  in  certain  sections  of 
our  country  it  has  not  been  generously  and  cheerfully 
acknowledged,  I  have  neither  the  patience  nor  the 
desire  to  deal.  Living  in  the  shadow  of  Bunker  Hill 
and  in  close  proximity  to  Lexington  and  Concord, 
we  find  one  of  these  reasons,  which  is  as  puerile  as  it  is 
provincial.  The  fact  of  the  Irish  element  in  our  popu- 
lation is  another.  And  into  the  intricacies  of  the 
Irish  situation  God  forbid  that  I  should  enter!  When 
a  people  are  unable  to  agree  among  themselves  upon 
the  management  of  their  own  affairs;  when  they  use 
the  greatest  crisis  in  all  history  for  treasonable  traffick- 
ing with  the  most  corrupt  and  cruel  enemy  that  the 
modern  world  has  known,  they  have  forfeited  the 
right  to  be  listened  to  with  patience. 

Putting  aside,  therefore,  such  obvious  and  unworthy 
reasons  as  these  for  whatever  failure  there  may  be  to 
recognize  our  obligation,  let  me  call  a  moment's 
attention  to  a  reason  that  is  not  so  obvious.  It  is  the 
fact  that  the  British  themselves  have  seemed  to  make 
light  of  what  they  have  achieved.  Far  from  boasting 
of  their  exploits,  and  claiming — which,  of  course,  is  a 
fact — that  without  their  fleet  the  war  could  never 
have  been  won,  they  have  persistently  referred  to 
themselves  as  merely  "doing  their  bit." 

There  is,  you  know,  some  subtle  connection  in  this 
world  between  character  and  surroundings;   between 

[5] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

temperament  and  environment,  soul  and  circum- 
stance.   In  ways  that  we  are  often  not  aware  of,  we 

are  influenced  by  climate,  soil  and  scenery.  The  at- 
mosphere of  the  East  has  produced  the  dreamy, 
meditative  mind.  In  the  West,  the  climate  makes 
man  restless,  energetic,  full  of  enterprise.  Perhaps 
some  of  the  differences  between  Americans  and  the 
English  can  be  explained  upon  this  basis.  We  Ameri- 
cans live  in  a  big  country,  and  we  talk  big!  We  are 
not  given  to  hiding  our  light  under  a  bushel.  We 
have  no  wish  to  conceal  the  cities  of  our  accomplish- 
ments that  are  set  upon  a  hill.  We  boast  freely,  build 
rapidly,  boom  whatever  is  American. 

England,  however,  is  a  little  land,  and  its  people 
have  a  curious  tendency  to  minimize  correspondingly 
their  greatness.  They  never  boast.  They  make  light 
of  great  achievements,  and  pass  off  heroic  acts  of 
sacrifice  as  part  of  the  day's  necessary  work!  It  is 
"doing  one's  bit" — that  is  all.  And  "doing  one's 
bit"  may  mean  laying  down  one's  life  for  a  friend,  or 
sailing  into  Zeebrugge  under  a  storm  of  fire  when  death 
is  almost  certain! 

Why  don't  they  speak  of  "doing  one's  i<fj"/,"  we  won- 
der, which  is  more  what  we  should  say,  and  would  seem 
to  describe  things  better.?  But,  to  speak  of  doing  one's 
best  would  savor,  to  the  English  mind,  of  Cant!  It 
would  smack  of  talk  on  Sundays,  not  on  week-days;  it 
would  suggest  the  school,  and  not  the  world.  Besides 
— when  measured  by  the  mighty  forces  and  the  tre- 
mendous issues,  which  come  to  be  at  stake — the  individ- 
ual act  of  greatest  sacrifice  is  no  more  than  a  "bit." 

[6] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Here  is  an  instance,  which  is  told  by  Coningsby 
Dawson.  In  the  early  days  of  the  war,  on  the  Flanders 
front,  "during  a  fierce  engagement,  a  British  officer 
saw  a  German  officer  impaled  on  the  barbed  wire, 
writhing  in  anguish.  The  fire  was  dreadful,  yet  he 
still  hung  there  unscathed.  At  length,  the  British 
officer  could  stand  it  no  longer.  He  said,  quietly: 
*I  can't  bear  to  look  at  that  poor  chap  any  longer.' 
So  he  went  out  under  the  hail  of  shell,  released  him, 
took  him  on  his  shoulders,  and  carried  him  to  the 
German  trench.  The  firing  ceased.  Both  sides 
watched  the  act  with  wonder.  Then  the  commander 
in  the  German  trench  came  forward,  took  from  his 
own  bosom  the  Iron  Cross,  and  pinned  it  on  the  breast 
of  the  British  officer."  Such  an  act  was  true  to  the 
holiest  ideals  of  chivalry;  but  it  was  only  "doing  one's 
bit." 

Now,  when  individuals,  and  a  whole  nation,  thus 
characterize  a  deed  of  extraordinary  heroism,  they 
give  evidence,  among  other  things,  of  the  long  years 
of  their  existence,  and  of  a  great  tradition  through  a 
glorious  past!  In  our  days  of  youth  we  boast;  but  the 
deeds  of  maturity  are  just  a  part  of  life.  It  is  left 
to  others  both  to  admire  and  to  praise. 

Let  us  speak,  however,  in  some  detail  of  the  measure 
of  our  indebtedness  to  England.  In  the  first  place,  we 
owe  her  a  big  debt  for  what  she  did  in  the  days  before 
the  war  broke  out  in  struggling  to  preserve  the  peace. 
In  the  stress  of  fearful  struggle  we  have  tended  to 
forget  those  early  days.  But  now  our  minds  go  back 
to  them.     We  have  time  to  remember.     When  the 

[7] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

storm-clouds  were  gathering  on  the  Balkan  horizon, 
Italy  and  France  did  little  to  avert  the  tempest.  Our 
own  Administration  at  Washington  put  forth  no 
vigorous,  well-timed  efforts  to  stay  the  lightning 
and  the  thunder.  But  the  Government  of  Britain, 
through  the  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  was  inde- 
fatigable in  working,  toiling,  planning  for  the  main- 
tenance of  peace!  Sir  Edward  Grey,  who  had  earned 
for  himself  in  other  crises  the  title  of  the  "Peacemaker 
of  Europe,"  left  no  stone  unturned  to  stay  the  strife. 
He  was  instant  on  the  field  with  suggestions  for  medi- 
ation; and  he  did  not  leave  it,  sad  and  broken,  till  the 
unwavering  will  of  Germany  for  war  was  clear. 

"On  the  day  of  the  presentation  of  the  Austrian  note 
he  proposed  the  co-operation  of  the  four  Powers — 
Germany,  France,  Italy  and  Great  Britain — in  favor 
of  moderation  at  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg;  and 
when  the  Austrians  rejected  the  Servian  reply  he  took 
the  important  step  of  proposing  that  the  French, 
Italian  and  German  Ambassadors  should  meet  him  in 
conference  immediately  *for  the  purpose  of  discover- 
ing an  issue  which  would  prevent  complications.'  " 
He  was  successful  at  last  in  getting  Austria  to  consent 
to  arbitration,  when  Germany  suddenly  drew  the 
sword  and  thus  made  clear  her  sinister  design. 

We  now  know  that  the  war  was  inevitable;  that  the 
Hun  desired  it,  and  plotted  for  it!  But,  we  should  not 
have  come  to  know  it  as  early  and  as  clearly  as  we  did 
except  for  the  beneficent  and  Christian  efforts  that 
were  made  through  Sir  Edward  Grey  for  peace.  We 
ought  to  be  eternally  grateful  to  that  noble  and  high- 

[81 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

minded  statesman,  and  to  the  country  which  he  repre- 
sented, that  none  of  us  in  looking  back  can  say: 
"It  might  have  been  avoided.  If  this,  or  that,  had 
only  been  suggested,  the  storm  would  never  probably 
have  burst!"  "The  saddest  day  of  my  life,"  Lord 
Grey  declared  that  it  was,  when  his  well-meant  efforts 
finally  were  frustrated.  And  his  sadness,  as  we  know, 
was  shared  by  others.  When  the  Cabinet  finally  de- 
cided upon  war,  more  than  one  of  the  members,  we 
were  told,  broke  down  and  cried  like  a  little  child, 
among  them  Mr.  Asquith,  who  was  then  Prime 
Minister. 

It  is  good,  as  we  look  back  now,  to  remember  things 
like  these.  For  nothing  would  have  been  the  same 
if  England's  effort  to  preserve  the  peace  had  not  at 
once  and  publicly  unmasked  the  will  of  Germany  for 
war. 

Again,  we  owe  a  debt  to  England  for  the  emphasis 
she  laid  at  once  on  what  was  right.  She  came  out  flat 
and  fair  and  firm,  and  took  her  stand  upon  the  moral 
law!  Someone  has  said  that  "of  all  the  assets  which 
England  through  the  centuries  has  possessed  in  deal- 
ing with  Europe  and  the  world,  the  most  priceless  has 
been  this — that  the  word  of  England  is  the  bond  of 
England."  You  remember  the  "infamous  proposal" 
that  was  made  to  her  by  Germany.  England  was  to 
stand  aside  while  France  was  being  crushed,  the 
promise  being  given  that  no  French  territory  would  be 
permanently  held.  She  was  to  offer  no  objection  to 
the  violation  of  Belgian  neutrality,  it  being  solemnly 
agreed  by  Germany  that  when  the  war  ended  Bel- 

[9] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

gian  integrity  would  be  respected  if  she  offered  no 
resistance.  And,  on  the  basis  of  these  two  bargains, 
it  was  suggested  that  good  relations  could  permanently 
be  established  between  the  two  great  countries. 

What  the  whole  thing  simmered  down  to,  as  Ches- 
terton remarked,  was  this:  "Germany  came  to 
England  and  said,  *If  you  will  break  your  promise  in 
the  hope  of  helping  me  to  break  my  promise,  I  will 
reward  you  with  another  of  my  celebrated  promises.'  " 
We  can  not  be  too  thankful  that  England  instantly 
and  scornfully  refused  the  utterly  dishonorable  terms! 
The  world  is  in  her  debt  for  terming  it  at  once  and  pro- 
claiming it  an  "infamous  proposal"  and  for  saying,  as 
she  did,  that  "it  would  be  a  disgrace  for  her  to  make 
the  bargain — a  disgrace  from  which  the  good  name  of 
the  country  never  would  recover." 

At  the  very  outset,  therefore,  England  took  her 
stand  upon  the  moral  law,  and  international  integrity, 
and  the  keeping  of  one's  word!  A  promise  was  a 
promise!  She  was  pledged  to  stand  by  Belgium — and 
stand  by  her  she  would!  She  plunged  into  the  war, 
therefore,  a  united  nation,  with  the  sense  of  justice  to 
sustain  the  people  and  the  consciousness  of  rectitude 
to  keep  them  firm.  She  nailed  God's  colors  to  the 
mast  of  every  ship  in  her  majestic  navy,  and  she  sent 
her  little  army  on  the  instant  into  France,  pitiably 
weak  in  numbers,  but  unconquerably  strong  by  reason 
of  the  justice  of  the  cause.  It  was  a  moral  appeal  that 
went  ringing  through  the  land,  and  brought  volun- 
teers by  millions  from  offices  and  factories  and  great 
estates — from  the  homes  of  rich  and  poor  alike — to  go 

[101 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

and  die  if  necessary  that  honor  might  not  vanish  from 
the  world!  It  was  the  same  appeal,  a  mighty  moral 
issue,  that  reached  across  the  seas  and  set  the  con- 
sciences of  the  colonists  aflame  in  Canada,  Australia 
and  in  far  New  Zealand,  India  and  even  in  South 
Africa,  till  the  far-flung  empire  was  a  unit,  and  a 
great  crusade  was  entered  on  at  once!  Self-interest 
could  not  have  accomplished  it;  mere  motives  of 
defence  could  not  possibly  have  wrought  the  miracle. 
It  was  the  greatest  instance  that  the  world  has  ever 
witnessed  of  the  power  of  a  noble  and  a  high  Ideal. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  war,  it  has  been  very  truly 
said.  There  is  the  war  that  the  ruffian  wages  when  he 
rushes  from  concealment  to  assault  a  defenceless 
woman;  and  there  is  the  kind  that  the  man  wages  who 
hurries  to  defend  her.  Great  Britain  recognized  the 
difference,  and  the  world  is  in  her  debt  for  acting  on 
it  with  supreme  and  instant  resolution. 

Again,  I  think  we  are  indebted  to  her  for  the  calm 
forbearance  that  she  exercised  all  through  our  own 
long  period  of  waiting.  She  did  not  blame  us,  nor 
utter  stern  reproaches.  Whatever  she  may  have  felt, 
she  kept  her  feelings  to  herself.  Indeed,  she  used 
conscious  efforts  to  understand  our  hesitancy,  and 
excuse  it.  She  went  so  far  even  as  to  say,  through  the 
mouths  of  public  men  and  scholars,  that  under  similar 
circumstances  she  would  probably  have  done  the 
same  herself.  Less  than  six  months  before  we  made 
the  great  decision,  a  thoughtful  and  distinguished 
Englishman,  a  scholar  and  a  university  professor, 
Gilbert   Murray,   endeavored   to   explain   America's 

[11] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

attitude,  and  tried  to  justify  it.  "What  nation  in 
history,"  he  asked  his  countrymen,  "ever  did  fight 
for  motives  of  pure  philanthropy  and  sympathy,  in 
a  war  four  thousand  miles  away?  It  is  not  for  us," 
he  added,  "to  expect  it,  nor  to  blame  Americans  if 
they  do  not  draw  the  sword." 

But  the  joy  of  the  English  when  we  took  the  unprec- 
edented step  —  when  we  did  what  no  other  nation 
ever  had  done — is  evidence  of  how  great  the  forbear- 
ance was  that  had  been  exercised!  Nothing  could 
possibly  have  exceeded  the  warmth  of  their  welcome, 
nor  the  great  wholehearted  way  in  which  they  have 
given  praise  to  the  instant  assistance  of  our  sailors 
and  the  incomparable  bra-eery  of  our  soldiers. 

But  we  pass  to  the  greatest  and  most  obvious  debt 
of  all,  our  indebtedness  to  England's  Navy!  Where 
should  we  have  been  without  it,  and  where  would  the 
entire  world  have  been."*  We  remember  those  long 
and  silent  watches  in  the  cold  and  dark  North  Sea; 
we  recall  that  barrier  of  might  which  was  sleepless  in 
its  watchfulness  for  more  than  four  long  weary  years. 
The  barrier  was  never  seriously  threatened,  and  it  was 
seldom  seen  or  heard  from.  But  there  it  lay,  so  great 
a  terror  that  the  foe  was  kept  in  hiding.  Some  of  us 
can  remember  the  fears  that  used  to  come  with  waking 
thoughts  when  we  let  ourselves  wonder  whether  the 
obstacle  might  somehow,  suddenly,  be  battered  down 
and  sunk  beneath  the  waves.  But  the  dreaded  mo- 
ment never  came;  and  instead  there  came  the  great 
surrender  which  was  vastly  more  humiliating  to  the 
foe  than  defeat  in  a  mighty  battle  that  the  English 

[12] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

had  so  hoped  for.  Some  of  the  boys  from  our  church 
were  there  on  American  warships  when  that  "Ren- 
dezvous of  Shame"  for  Germany  took  place;  and 
we  have  reason  to  thank  God  that  the  Navy  of 
Great  Britain,  strengthened  by  our  own  Navy,  was 
so  strong  that  final  success  at  sea  was  won  without  the 
loss  of  human  life. 

And  when  we  speak  of  the  debt  we  owe  to  England 
for  her  power  on  the  sea,  we  must  not  forget  the  por- 
tion of  that  power  which  came  from  her  mercantile 
marine.  High  as  we  rank  the  valor  of  her  navy, 
I  think  for  myself  that  I  place  as  high,  or  higher,  the 
courage  and  devotion  of  her  common  seamen  and  her 
merchant  captains  who  fought  incessantly  the 
treacherous  submarines,  and  crossed  and  re-crossed 
oceans  which  at  any  moment  might  engulf  them! 
Yet  they  never  wavered;  they  took  their  lives  into 
their  hands,  and  did  not  fail  in  coming  up  to  what 
Nelson  long  ago  declared  the  nation  expected!  A 
year  ago,  in  England,  when  the  submarine  menace 
was  greatest  and  most  terrifying,  it  was  stated  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  as  yet  not  a  single  instance 
had  been  heard  of  in  which  a  British  seaman  had  re- 
fused to  sail.  We  owe  to  them  a  mighty  debt  for  that! 
And  when  we  congratulate  ourselves  on  the  two 
million  men  and  more  that  we  sent  abroad,  let  us  not 
forget  that  more  than  a  million  of  them  were  "trans- 
ported for  us  in  British  vessels,  and  convoyed  by 
British  warships." 

And  what  shall  we  say  —  what  can  we  say  of  that 
larger  measure  of  indebtedness  which  belongs  to,  and 

[13] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

is  symbolized  forever  by,  those  million  dead  who 
sleep  forever  and  so  well  beneath  the  fields  of  France, 
in  the  sandy  soil  of  grim  Gallipoli,  in  Egypt,  Syria, 
Palestine  and  far-off  Mesopotamia.  The  places  where 
they  lie  form  henceforth  but  a  part  of  England;  and 
the  soil  is  richer  for  the  dust  that  lies  there. 

"For  you,  the  dead  beyond  the  sea, 
Who  gave  your  lives  to  hold  us  free, 

By  us,  who  keep  your  memory, 
What  can  be  said? 

"We  can  not  sing  your  praises  right, 
Lost  heroes  of  the  endless  fight; 

Whose  souls  into  the  lonely  night 
Too  soon  have  fled. 

"We  can  but  honor,  cherish,  bless 
Your  sacred  names;  no  words  express 

The  measure  of  our  thankfulness. 
To  you  the  dead." 

There  are  some  things  which  the  heart  makes  no 
attempt  to  utter.  It  is  hopeless  to  find  words.  We 
can  only  bow  the  head,  and  lift  lame  hands,  and 
breathe  a  prayer.  But  the  deep  heart  of  America  will 
not  forget  the  mighty  sorrow  English  mothers,  fathers, 
wives  and  sisters  know;  and  it  has  not  failed  to  take 
example  of  the  bright,  brave,  sturdy  way  in  which  that 
overwhelming  sorrow  has  been  met  and  borne.  We 
have  suffered  little  in  comparison.    Our  dead,  as  wc 

[141 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

measure  them  with  theirs,  are  but  a  scattered  few. 
The  British  lost  sometimes  in  a  single  fortnight  as 
many  as  we  have  had  to  sacrifice  in  the  entire  war. 
The  names  inscribed  upon  the  Rolls  of  Honor  in  their 
universities  and  other  institutions  mount  into  the 
thousands,  while  with  us  it  is  a  matter  of  mere  scores, 
or  hundreds.  The  shining  armor  of  America  bears 
only  a  few  stains,  while  Britain's  armor  is  all  red  with 
the  heart's  blood  of  her  bravest  and  her  best.  Yet 
her  loss,  we  are  well  aware,  is  ours,  too!  For  who 
knows  what  those  youthful  heroes  might  have  given 
to  the  world.''  Our  literature  might  have  been  en- 
riched by  them;  our  science  added  to;  our  progress 
in  the  arts  advanced;  our  religious  knowledge 
deepened.  So  her  loss  must  be  also  reckoned  ours, 
and  we  ask  the  privilege  today  of  clasping  hands  with 
our  kin  across  the  sea.  "Your  loss,"  we  say  to  them, 
"is  America's  as  well;  we  suffer  with  you,  and  we 
wish  that  we  might  make  the  load  you  bear  in  some 
way  lighter.'" 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  debt  we  owe  the  living 
— those  who  fought  and  did  not  fall;  those  who 
served  and  did  not  have  to  make  the  ultimate  sacri- 
fice; those  who  craved  death,  but  are  permanently 
crippled;  those  who  saw  the  bright  sun  as  they 
crossed  to  France,  but  who  came  back  blinded; 
those  who  worked  and  toiled  at  home,  and  found  no 
kind  of  toil  too  menial  if  it  helped  in  any  way  the 
cause!  How  the  people  of  England  worked,  and  more 
especially  the  women!  No  Britain's  day  would  be 
complete  which  did  not  pay  some  special  tribute  to 

[15] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  part  which  England's  women  played.  Women  in 
factories;  women  in  munition  works;  women  in 
hospitals;  women  in  army  huts;  high-born  women 
scrubbing  Red  Cross  floors,  and  bidding  for  the  privi- 
lege of  doing  so!  In  all  the  great  book  of  the  war 
there  is  no  brighter  chapter  than  the  one  which  tells  of 
woman's  part. 

"Strange,  that  in  this  great  hour,  when  righteousness 

Has  won  her  war  upon  hypocrisy, 

That  some  there  be,  who,  lost  in  littleness, 

And  mindful  of  an  ancient  grudge,  can  ask: 

*Now,  what  has  England  done  to  win  this  war?' 

We  think  we  see  her  smile  that  English  smile. 

And  shrug  a  lazy  shoulder,  and  just  smile! 

It  were  so  little  worth  her  while  to  pause 

In  her  stupendous  task  to  make  reply. 

What  has  she  done.?    No  need  to  ask! 

Upon  the  fields  of  Flanders  and  of  France 

A  million  crosses  mark  a  million  graves. 

And,  ah,  her  women!    On  that  peaceful  isle. 

Where  in  the  hawthorne  hedges  thrushes  sang. 

And  meadow-larks  made  gay  the  scented  air. 

Now  blackened  chimneys  rear  their  grimy  heads 

Smoke-belching,  and  the  frightened  birds  have  fled 

Before  the  thunder  of  the  whirring  wheels. 

Behind  unlovely  walls,  amid  the  din. 

Seven  times  a  million  noble  women  toiled 

Nor  dreamed  that  they  have  played  a  hero's  part. 

Ah,  what  has  England  done?    When  came  the  call 

She  counted  not  the  cost,  but  gave  her  all." 

[16] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

All  this  is  now  a  matter  of  the  past.  It  belongs  to 
history.  But  I  can  not  close  without  a  word  that 
concerns  the  future.  What  has  been  is  secure!  What 
is  to  be,  our  hands  have  yet  to  shape.  And  pray  God 
that  our  hands  in  shaping  it  may  work  together! 
Those  whom  God  in  war  has  joined  together,  let  not 
man  in  peace  hereafter  put  asunder! 

We  owe  it  still  to  England  that  she  is  ready  now,  in 
the  hour  of  Victory,  to  join  us  in  a  League  of  Nations! 
Her  great  men  have  declared  their  willingness  — 
Lloyd  George,  Balfour,  Viscount  Grey,  and  our  faith- 
ful never-failing  friend  Lord  Bryce.  England,  with 
America  and  France  and  Italy  and  other  nations  that 
are  free,  can  keep  the  great  Alliance  that  exists,  and 
keep  it  for  the  future  peace  and  happy  progress  of  the 
world! 

England,  I  repeat,  is  ready!  And,  what  is  more,  it 
would  seem  that  for  many  years  she  has  been  ready, 
and  has  looked  with  longing  for  some  kind  of  an  al- 
liance! When  the  last  great  Laureate  of  England 
died,  he  left  behind  some  unfamiliar  stanzas.  They 
were  addressed  to  America,  and  contained  a  prophecy 
and  hope  which  have  nobly  been  fulfilled. 

How  many  of  us,  I  wonder,  are  acquainted  with 
these  words  of  Tennyson,  which  were  written  in  1852: 

"Gigantic  daughter  of  the  West, 
We  drink  to  thee  across  the  flood. 

We  know  thee  most,  we  love  thee  best, 
For  art  thou  not  of  British  blood? 

[17] 


OUR  DEBT  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

"Should  war's  mad  blast  again  be  blown, 
Permit  not  thou  the  tyrant  powers 

To  fight  thy  Mother  here  alone, 

But  let  thy  broadsides  roar  with  ours. 

"O  rise,  our  strong  Atlantic  sons, 

When  war  against  our  freedom  springs! 

O  speak  to  Europe  through  your  guns; 
They  can  be  understood  by  Kings." 

We  have  done  as  Tennyson  desired.  The  poet's 
vision  has  been  gloriously  fulfilled.  And  now  may  the 
statesman's  dream  come  also  true!  If  we  are  true  to 
our  ideals,  if  we  are  not  false  to  the  very  name  we  bear 
of  the  United  States,  we  will  rise  to  the  glorious  op- 
portunity that  God  in  His  infinite  mercy  now  presents 
to  us!  It  is  America's  mission  to  make  clear  to  the 
world  how  the  many  may  be  one;  how  sovereign  states 
may  maintain  their  sovereignty  and  yet  establish  an 
indissoluble  union!  What  has  proved  to  be  possible 
upon  a  continent  may  yet  be  wrought  out  on  the 
planet.  Let  all  provincial  voices  of  objection  be 
shamed  into  silence.  Let  whatever  difficulties  may 
arise  be  overcome  by  the  victorious  and  enlightened 
Children  of  the  Allies  as  similar  difficulties  were  over- 
come a  century  and  more  ago  by  the  enlightened  and 
victorious  Fathers  of  our  great  Republic.  Let  inter- 
dependence come  to  crown  the  facts  of  independence. 
For  then  we  shall  realize  the  Commonwealth  of  Man, 
the  Federation  of  the  World! 


[181 


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